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The title may be a bit misleading. I was recently convinced by my friend Ryan to move my main laptop OS to Mac. I am currently running a dual-boot/triple-boot. I used to run Ubuntu then messed up my system a bit, so I am now double booting with Xubuntu as my main and Kali Linux as my secondary which I am using as a side job of security testing. Though I used to love Mac computers, I began to stop using them due to the fact that there was a low amount of applications that I began to use that were not for Mac but instead for Windows. So I slowly began to transition to Windows. I’ve been using Windows Vista for the last 3 years and Windows 7 for the last year. I love Windows, there is so many things created for Windows and so much freedom that comes with it. But now, I am looking to up my computing power when it comes to being on the move with my laptop. I love Xubuntu and Kali, but if I were to move over to a Mac I would be able to create android, mac, and IOS applications. I would just have to move to my desktop when I want to make a windows app, and most of the time I am creating things in java, thus there is no need to do so. I would be able to create everything I needed on the go with my Mac. If I wanted to continue with my security work, I could run a virtual machine of Kali, much like I do on my current desktop. If I wanted to run Xubuntu, I could easily run a virtual machine or dual boot, and the same goes for Windows. I would be able to do everything I wanted on the go. The only thing keeping me from doing so is the price. Mac computers (or at least the good ones) start at the lowest being $1,000 refurbished from Apple. I could probably get one refurbished or used from craigslist or something cheaper but still, I have pretty much no job/income as of right now. My current main computer costs about $1,325. In reality, I payed a little over $500 for everything because of deals/money off/friends giving me stuff for free. Even at $500 it took me about 1 year (technically 2-3) to get all the money to finally build it. To solve the issue of money, I am looking to get a job at Unibat or Sam Ash/Guitar Center/Some random music store. So, look forward to those updates and stories from working there.

On the topic of IOS 8. WWDC is going on right now, and with all of the new updates to IOS 8, there are many things that are making android and IOS very similar. With all the “hacking” going on with GoogolPlex, developing cool hackable stuff with IOS is getting a huge update and things are starting to become more like android. IOS 8 will finally allow 3rd party keyboards as well, which was one of my favorite features of android due to the fact that I loved the swype keyboard. So I am considering moving to IOS………just kidding I am probably never moving, but yeah it is getting good though. Mmk later.

I recently stumbled upon a head of projects to do when learning, mastering, or just looking for something to do with programming. The github user Karan posted this on his/her account with a list of 100 projects to do under different categories. I’ve been terribly bored with programming after the FRC competition so I thought I would do each of these. I am setting my goal to finish all 100 of them. Not sure when but I will. I’ll be posting all of them on my github page over at: https://github.com/mag9. So if you’d like to follow along with my work doing each project check in to the repo every now and then to see how I’m doing. That’s all for today.

-Jeremy Stark

For those of you that would like to look at the 100 projects: click here

A while ago I wrote up an article on the best way to learn to make video games. It turned out pretty well and I thought I might as well share it. It covers where the best place to learn basic coding is and what languages to learn, learning different frameworks, engines, and libraries, and finally releasing the game.

Hey guys, so recently my school has started a little program to give all of the students in just my grade a laptop. They decided that half of us would get Chrome Books, and the other half would get Macbooks or Macbook Pros. I am guessing that they are doing this because they don’t have enough money to buy all of us macbooks, so they just bought Chrome Books, and then they gave the other group the macbooks that we already had.

Now, To what I am getting to, is… I got a Chrome Book. Now, while I am at school I want to be able to program, but since the Chrome OS is VERY closed, I am unable to really program much at all. Though I have been able to find some online IDEs, my favorite being Compilr. It has a good amount of functions and can do some basic stuff if I want to mess around with some coding but other than that, it is pretty minimal compared to what I am used to. Also, I can only program console c++, thanks to the computers not having java on them, which makes it so nice for using the internet. I find it funny that they claim this is a netbook for USING THE INTERNET yet it DOESN’T HAVE JAVA! Their logic makes no sense what so ever, but them again, it’s a $175-$200 netbook. I have been looking into installing Ubuntu or Linux Mint on them, because they are linux based machines and I am able to work the console but other than that, there is not much I can do other than go on the web.

All in all, it’s not the worst thing that can happen, except for the fact that if the they see in our history that we are going on websites a lot, they check to see what it is. If it turns up to be even remotely not school appropriate, it gets blocked. So far, they have blocked Reddit and DeviantART, plus a couple others. And of course, those were the two websites I went onto the most…

Well, I hope this post was not long, boring, and that I still have you reading. Talk you guys in the next post.

So Ludum Dare was last weekend, or two weekends ago….I forgot. But I actually finished this year, sort of, but I used Unity3d this time. I’m not completely sure why I did it, but I did and it turned out pretty well. I even turned it into an android version!

Hello again, it’s been a while since I have last posted and A LOT has happened since then. To start it off, my dungeon crawler game has been moved to being creating with Unity3D, though I only occasionally work on it. I haven’t been able to work on programming for a while due to school. On the other hand, my game studio Crysix Studios has recently lost a member. Our social media head, Brice Anderson AKA OnizaX, has resigned. He felt that we weren’t doing anything. He had actually approached us with doing a Garry’s Mod gamemode. Though none of us really had any experience, and with school getting busier, I highly doubted that I would be able to work on such a large project as his. I think that really is the reason that he left. But, anyways, I am starting a new larger project and moving the dungeon crawler to the side. This project is going to be a bit larger than the dungeon crawler, but in its own sense. It is a 2D rpg called, “Thrones Upon Thrones”. I will have a completely different post about that telling the story, music and what-not. But definitely look forward to dev posts from that. I also recently put together a small game using some graphics from photonstorm, it was for a class called Tectonic Fury, the project was based around minerals and your body. You can read more about it on the games page.

Anyways, that’s about it, I don’t really have much to say. I just wanted to give a little update on the everything.

I recently have started putting together a simple little dungeon crawler game with the rest of Crysix Studios. I will start adding some of the guys’ art once I add nearest neighbor to the rending for tiles. I just wanted to do a little post to say 1) Happy New Year! and 2) I am making a dungeon crawler. Here is a picture of it so far:

I will also be participating in One Game a Month, not much to say about it, but it basically means more posts and games from me this year!